


The Night Watch

by Mansaeboysbe



Category: K-pop, K.A.R.D (Band)
Genre: Angst, Kinda Fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-23 13:12:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16159640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mansaeboysbe/pseuds/Mansaeboysbe
Summary: Getting kidnapped by your coworker’s gang hadn’t exactly been in the job description of working late shifts at a bar.





	The Night Watch

**Author's Note:**

> -Admin Mari

Y/n) ran her fingers along the smooth surface of the marble countertop as she moved to the sink set on the other side of the bar. She barely looked up as her fellow bartender and friend, at least that’s how she viewed him, Matthew, maneuvered around her to place shot glasses on the bartop in front of a horde of overly giggly girls. She grabbed a glass from the rack beside the sink and filled it with water as she looked up in the mirror in front of her just in time to see her coworker leaning on his elbows to, apparently, listen better to what one of the girls was saying, as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.

Shutting off the tap, she walked back to the far left side of the bar and set the glass down in front of a young, brown-haired man with dark bags under his eyes and thick vein running through his hands and arms, who had been gabbling on about who knows what. He took the glass after a moment and sipped from it a few times before collapsing onto the counter, completely asleep.

Her attention was called away by a group of guys in their mid-twenties demanding “anything her pretty little ass could make” and she wanted to throw up. She regarded the men for a moment, noting how their eyes traveled to her bosom and their smiles resembled that of predators. The tall one in the middle had leaned down into the same pose Matthew was in but it came off as sleazy rather than friendly when this blonde did it. His two goons were alternating between blatantly staring at her and looking over at the girls who were now taking the tequila shots Matthew was pouring for them. She made a mental note to warn him about giving them too much alcohol while these boys were in the building and cast a side glance toward him, who was still conversing with the girls, sending them charming smiles and an occasional wink, before she bent down and pulled out various liquors from below.

Honestly, if she didn’t think she could get a couple hundred off these guys she would have just poured whatever into their glasses and just pretended to the mishap was due “to her tiny little girl brain.” Instead, she poured drinks that would definitely hurt their wallets unless they were secretly billionaires, which she doubted by their attire that resembled 2000s fratboys.

She handed the glasses over one by one, letting her fingers brush theirs and offering them sly smiled as she messed with the collar of her dress shirt in a way that showed off a little more cleavage than she was comfortable with.

“Can I get you anything else?” she purred. (Y/n) felt disgusted with herself but when the ringleader bit his lip and promised to return she knew she was about to get a bigger tip than what he already had put on the counter to start.

As soon as they walked away she tried not to gag as she put both of her hands on the bar to support herself and questioned what she was doing with her life. There was a break in the patrons as a new song started and a wave of new bodies piled themselves onto the dance floor like ants to a piece of fruit. Even the group of chicks Matthew had been entertaining were pulling each other by the arms out to the middle of the club.

Speaking of her coworker, she looked over to find him wiping down the counter where the girls had spilled their alcohol more than they had drunk it. He returned her gaze after replacing the cloth in its designated compartment.

“How about we switch for a night. You can take the douchebag fuckboys and I’ll take the tipsy little packs of girls,” she suggested after a minute.

“Hell no, I may be handsome enough to grab the attention of both males and females but if you served on girls, you’d be broke,” he joked.

“You’re so full of yourself,” (Y/n) replied, but she was still smiling.

“Tell you what, if those idiots come back I’ll protect you from anything they send your way.”

“My hero,” she scoffed, removing some of the empty glasses and moving to wash them, “A true knight in shining armor.” She turned to face him and gave him an eye roll but all he did in response was dab.

She glared at him and he brushed it off with a laugh, choosing to use the good nature of their conversation to amplify his greeting to a pair of brunettes who had just come up to the counter.

The night continued on in a motion of customers rotating until it was as if they were being swirled around in a wineglass themselves. Every so often the men would come back and either attempt to flirt with (Y/n) or, after a couple bad encounters where one of the guys got handsy and Matthew then took over, haggled her coworker.

Normally working at the club on a Saturday night didn’t bother her but for some reason tonight the lights seemed to be blinding, the music too loud and the amount of people was overwhelming. Her head was pounding by the time 2 AM rolled around and, at Matthew’s insistence, she took a seat on the other side of the bar to take a breather. She watched him run around and fill the remainder of the customer’s orders before coming to stand in front of her.

“Feeling any better?” he spoke as he began drying glasses in the stereotypical stock photo bartender way.

Shaking her head slightly, she took a moment to look at Matthew. Despite how his hair was damp with sweat, it still fell perfectly across his forehead. The light brown was replaced with a darker coloring due to the added moisture but that was also the only give away that he had even broken a sweat. His black dress shirt and burgundy vest kept everything else hidden.

He slicked his hair back with one hand and then looked over at (Y/n).

“Careful, if you keep staring I might think you’ve fallen for me.” He laughed. She sighed in exasperation.

She waited a few more minutes before joining him behind the counter once again. As she began to get off the stool, a pair of girls sat at the end of the bar. Matthew sauntered over to them, but he didn’t act like his usual flirty self.

The one he immediately engaged with was a pretty blonde who smiled at him and leaned her chin on her laced fingers as she spoke to him. A woman with brunette hair sat between her and the wall. She hadn’t talked the entire time except to ask for a drink, which was now twirled around by the rim as she listened to their conversation. Her face remained drawn and closed. She brought the glass up to her lips and glanced over to (Y/n), who quickly averted her gaze and went back to fixing drinks, before tilting her head back and downing all of the amber liquid in one shot.

(Y/n) could feel her cheeks burning as she took a man’s card and put it in the chip reader. Only when she handed it back and felt Matthew brush past her on the way to the back, did she look back over to where the girls were sitting. She was again met with the intense stare of the woman who simply signaled that she wanted her glass refilled.

Cautiously she walked over to the women, taking out the bottle of whiskey Matthew had used earlier. She filled the glass quickly and then removed herself to the other side of the bar. The blonde hadn’t even acknowledged her, yet (Y/n) felt something was off about the girls. Neither had talked since Matthew left and neither looked around at all, simply ignored everything around them. Not to mention their clothes.

From what (Y/n) could see, the blonde had an expensive black sheath dress and a pair of diamond earrings that she would have been willing to bet money on were real. The brunette woman was really her foil in a worn leather jacket and a simple washed out blue v-neck shirt underneath.

She avoided looking at them for a moment as the same group of guys from before stumbled up to the counter.

“How about another round for us?” the leader insisted, drawing out his words as if trying to appear soberer than he actually was. His mouth twisted into a smirk and he leaned forward until his face was close enough for (Y/n) to almost taste the putrid smell of alcohol that was coating his body.

“I can’t, sir,” she stated calmly, despite how sick to her stomach she felt.

“And why not?” he spat.

“You’ve been cut off,” Matthew called as he walked out of the back.

“The hell I have.” The guy pulled back and turned to confront her coworker.

“You have, so go back to the dance floor or leave.” Matthew’s voice was dangerously low as he spoke; his face had hardened and his arms were crossed as he stood his ground next to (Y/n). The idiot opened his mouth to retaliate.

Suddenly the stoic woman slid out of her chair. She reminded (Y/n) of a panther as she prowled over to where the guys were. Clearing her throat, she caught the attention of the men. She and the leader made eye contact and, for the first time since they had come into the club, he cowered.

(Y/n) didn’t blame him for hiding his tail between his legs. Despite her obvious beauty with her round cheeks and full lips, her eyes glinted, showing the rising anger that was also evident in her posture. She had one foot forward to stagger her weight as if she was expecting a fight to occur. Her arms were crossed but her fingers were resting visibly on her biceps, nails digging into the material of her jacket.

“Jiwoo, let’s just go,” the blonde simpered, getting up and running her fingertips along the woman’s shoulders as she moved to the other side of her, letting her hand rest on her left shoulder with a feather-light touch that still seemed to hold enough power to command the brunette to hold her position. She did, although she was leaning onto the balls of her feet as if she wanted nothing more than to punch the man’s stupid face.

Before she moved on, the blonde sent one last look to Matthew, who nodded. Her heels clicked as she walked away and (Y/n) couldn’t help but watch as the brunette, in her fishnets stockings and combat boots brushed past the guys and slinked off toward the exit. She looked over at the men who were still standing, stunned, as the women walked away. They took one look at Matthew and scrambled to get away.

“What was that all about?” she mumbled, looking to Matthew for reassurance. His stance had eased, if only slightly, but his expression remained closed.

“I think we should close the bar early,” he said, “I’ll go tell the manager.” She wanted to protest but he had already left.

(Y/n) began cleaning the bar top and putting away and bottles that were left out as she waited for him to return. She watched him on his return trip as he maneuvered through the crowd and kept his eyes lowered as he helped her close up.

She could tell his mind was elsewhere since he hadn’t made any sort of attempt at conversation and he almost missed the counter as he went to put a glass down. She had pushed his elbow forward so there would be no shattered glass to pick up later, but even then he hadn’t really looked at her when he said his thanks.

“I need to go,” he said after glancing at the obsidian face of the Rolex watch on his left wrist.

“Oh, oka-” He ignored her and pushed through the door, leaving her to finish locking up the rest of the liquor as she shooed club goers away from the bar. When everything was back in place and she had double checked the locks (Y/n), too, resigned to the back about five minutes after Matthew had.

She pulled her purse from her personal locker and closed it quietly despite how nobody would have even heard it over the sound of the music. With a sigh, she rolled her shoulders and tried to relieve some of the tension that had knotted in her back.

(Y/n) retrieved her phone from the largest pocket of her bag, digging past the tubes of chapsticks and receipts, checking for any notifications she may have received during her shift. Walking over to the door, she pushed it open with her back, stepping out into the cool night air of the alley behind the club.

As she began to pull her headphones out of her bag, she overheard the voices of a couple people coming from the opposite direction of where she was headed. She paused her movement, trying to hear a snippet of whatever was being discussed, not that she normally tried to eavesdrop on others, but to be fair this was a conversation being held in a dark alleyway behind a club at three in the morning. It had to be good.

Creeping along slowly, she stopped and hid behind a large dumpster. By then the conversation was becoming heated and (Y/n) thought that if they hadn’t been trying to be quiet, it would have turned into a shouting match.

Then it became quiet. A complete calm before the storm situation and she found her fingers trembling as she backed up, deciding this really wasn’t something she wanted to get caught up in. She rose from her bent position and tried to walk away as quietly as she could.

The streets were silent and although that should have been an alarming notion considering the people who could be lurking in the shadows, she was partial to it over the voices in the alley. She had one foot on the sidewalk when she was met by the voice of a man who definitely smoked too much.

“Where do you think you’re going.” It wasn’t a question, rather he was demanding her attention.

When she turned she was met with a broad chest covered in a worn t-shirt and a crisp, clean leather jacket as if he was wearing it out for the first time. His jeans were also new, it seemed, aside from the very obvious bloodstains lining the bottoms near his boots. She moved her gaze up to his face. To her surprise, he didn’t appear to be more than twenty-five. His black hair was slicked back, his irises were so dark they blended with his pupils, and his mouth was moving but she wasn’t hearing a word.

She stepped back and he stepped forward, revealing the metal baseball bat that had been hidden behind his leg. He lifted it up and all she wanted to do was scream but she couldn’t even open her mouth as fear clamped her mouth shut.

He was about to swing the bat when a large hand grabbed onto the metal and yanked it out of the man’s grip. The man was shocked, to say the least, but the second he saw who was holding his bat his face immediately screwed up with irritation.

“BM, back the fuck off.”

Matthew didn’t budge, though, and instead kept a firm grip on the bat as he positioned himself to swing it. His mouth was drawn into a tight line and his breathing was surprisingly calm for someone who was being threatened.

“Get your fucking face awa-” he didn’t have time to finish before the bat slammed into his face with a sickening crack. The man crumpled to the ground, nose bleeding as well as his mouth, and the sound of people running down the street to where they were had Matthew pulling (Y/n) along by the arm as the raced down the alleyway.

A black SUV was parked on the other side and the door was pushed open from the inside as they approached. Matthew forced (Y/n) inside before discarding the bat and jumping in himself. Just as he slammed the door shut, the car lurched forward, already accelerating beyond what was legal.

The driver took a sharp right turn and she was thrown into the person on her left, incidentally the blonde from earlier. As she began to apologize, the blonde simply shook her head and offered a quick, closed-lip smile as reassurance.

(Y/n) looked around at the other people in the vehicle. Aside from herself, the blonde and Matthew, who were all squished in the back, there was the brunette, Jiwoo, if she remembered correctly, and their apparent getaway driver was a man with jet black hair, who only kept one hand on the wheel despite how they were probably going at least ninety in a forty-five. He looked at her through the rear view mirror and for a moment her only thought was, how the hell are all these people so attractive? She felt that all the people in the car would be more fitting on the cover of Vogue rather than escaping from whatever the situation before was.

She glanced over at Matthew’s profile. His eyes darted around as he looked through the windshield and at the mirror on the passenger’s side. Had he honestly just bashed that man’s face in back there? Come on, this was the guy she had worked with for months. She knew him; she considered him a friend. He was the person who helped her deal with shitty customers and had taught her how to mix most of the drinks she served. He dabbed all the time for god’s sake!

But no, all of this was undeniably real. Everything felt overwhelming and her head felt dizzy as she passed out.

She awoke in a cold room on a cement floor, a wadded up jacket tucked beneath her head. Her body was stiff from the ground and it was difficult to move from the soreness the plagued her muscles. It felt as if there was a weight keeping her chained to the floor, that or her mind was simply willing her to stay put, where it was at least semi-safe. There was no telling what was beyond the steel door, the only exit in the room she could see aside from the vent near the ceiling.

As she began to shift herself into a sitting position she was startled by the sound of the door being thrown open. The blonde from before sauntered in with a plate of food balanced expertly in one hand, a bottle of water in the other. She had changed into jeans and a simple blouse, both of which looked more on the pricier side, and she crouched down next to (Y/n) before offering the plate. She took it hesitantly.

“You’ve been out for a couple hours in case you’re wondering,” the woman said.

“Where are we?” (Y/n) asked after taking a bite of the sandwich. She didn’t even care what was in it, her stomach wouldn’t allow her to put it down.

Instead of answering, the blonde held the bottle out, urging her to take it.

“I’m Somin.”

“You didn’t answer my-”

“You’ll be staying in here for the time being. I’ll try and get you something more comfortable to lay on in the meantime.”

She stood and began to walk away when (Y/n) called her name tentatively. Somin looked over her shoulder at the girl on the floor. One eyebrow was raised but her eyes held no anger, only curiosity.

“Can I talk to Matthew?” Somin sighed.

“He’s out at the moment but I’ll send him here when he returns.”

With that she waltzed out of the room, letting the door fall shut behind her with a loud bang. Although the sound echoed for a moment, it was the silence that had the deepest impression on her. The only sound was her ragged breathing as she put the food back on the plate and sat still.

Since there wasn’t any way to occupy her thoughts other than basic exercise, she simply pushed herself up and paced around the room. As she mindlessly wandered the room, her foot caught on the jacket and she tripped, a string of curses slipping past her lips as she fell down. She paused and bent down, picking it up, and ready to chuck it across the room in frustration, but then she recognized it.

The worn leather was cool beneath her fingers. She crossed her legs beneath her and for a moment she looked off into space as she ran her thumb across the zipper.

The door creaked open, not forcefully like before, and (Y/n) looked over her shoulder. She was surprised to see Jiwoo instead Matthew peeking in.

As they made eye contact, (Y/n) felt a shiver run down her spine and Jiwoo seemed to notice, pushing the door open further and stepped inside. Calmly and swiftly, she crossed the room and bent down, taking the jacket from her hand.

(Y/n) let the material slip from her fingers as she held her gaze.

Jiwoo let the material uncrumple and then gently laid upon (Y/n)’s shoulders, the jacket encasing her in a warmth she hadn’t expected from the worn leather. Pulling her fingers back and curling them to her palm, Jiwoo stepped back, without a word, and turned on her heel, letting the door shut behind her on the way out.


End file.
